James Blake shares details of Overgrown LP, with contributions from Brian Eno and RZA, who now call Blake “Jimmy Digital”

James Blake, the man behind James Blake (TMT Review), has tidied up his studio space and shared a few things with us regarding Overgrown, his sophomore LP due for release on April 8 via Atlas/Republic Records. First off, the album cover (above) demonstrates that Blake has stopped shaking his head back and forth. He’s rolled up his sleeves, crossed his arms, and thought long and hard about his next move, free of distractions among the flora and the fauna.

Secondly, the album tracklist (below) demonstrates that Blake has stopped relying on an abundance of songs to get his point across, opting for 10 tracks instead of his self-titled effort’s 11. One of those tracks, as you might recall, is titled “Retrograde,” while others are titled “Overgrown,” and “Voyeur.” Not all of Overgrown’s 11 tracks are titled using single words, however. One track is titled “Digital Lion” (2 words), while another is titled “To the Last” (3 words). Versatility, it seems, remains vital to an artist’s success.

Finally, Mr. Blake has let fans know that new pals Brian Eno and RZA are getting involved, with RZA contributing a guest verse to “Take a Fall for Me” (5 words!) and Eno sprucing up “Digital Lion.” Look for their contributions when you give the album a listen — on tracks 4 and 7, respectively! Overgrown is up for pre-order on Blake’s site, with options ranging from CD, LP, and CD+LP+lithograph to CD+lithograph and LP+lithograph. Also available is Blake’s 2011 hit “Limit to Your Love” on Mp3 format. All recommended.

Overgrown tracklist:

01. Overgrown
02. I Am Sold
03. Life Around Here
04. Take a Fall for Me (ft. RZA)
05. Retrograde
06. DLM
07. Digital Lion
08. Voyeur
09. To the Last
10. Our Love Comes Back

All star producer Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, worked on A Clockwork Orange soundtrack) has assembled a suitably all star situation for his long-dreamt-of Nick Drake tribute compilation. Out April 15 in the UK on Navigator Records, Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake features such names as Vashti Bunyan, Teddy Thompson, Robyn Hitchcock, Green Gartside (Scritti Politti), Lisa Hannigan, Scott Matthews, Krystle Warren, and Danny Thompson. It was recorded live in London and Melbourne.

In the years following Drake’s tragic death, Joe Boyd had wanted to put together a tribute album to the young man he had worked with so long ago. But he felt the only way to get this thing to really come together was to get all these amazing artists together at the same time for a week in a rural studio, where they’d back each other up and create an organic, cohesive album in the great indie rock tradition of the ol’ “I lived in my weird uncle’s cabin in the northwoods of Michigan for six months without any contact with the outside world except for this album I created and oh yeah now I can communicate by blinking with certain raccoons” album creation story, except way, way cooler. Alas, that apparently didn’t happen for whatever reason (I blame Bon Iver; I don’t know why, but I do) so instead, Boyd & Co. put on a series of concerts featuring the songs from Way to Blue on a couple different continents, and voila! Live recordings of an elite group of musicians working together in beautiful, soft, melancholy harmony. And no rabies.

Pandora can’t catch a break. In the company’s struggle to achieve long-term viability (despite its popularity among the general public), they could certainly do without competition from a powerful California-based multinational corporation known for offering free services and having cool interactive logos whenever a special day rolls around — Robert Moog’s birthday, for instance.

I could be talking about Apple, since rumors of them starting their own music streaming service arose last October, but then we’d all have to engage in some hearty laughter at the idea of them making a habit of offering things for free. No, as you’ve probably gleaned from the title of this article, the rumors this time surround Google. The Financial Timesreports (reportedly, because you may have to purchase a subscription in order to view their article on the subject; ain’t nobody got time for that) that the search engine turned search-engine-and-technological-overlord has plans to enter the music streaming business.

Details are completely lacking, but the rumor itself and its presumable coming-to-fruition could’ve been predicted. Google, as the owners of YouTube, already have a stranglehold on the video streaming industry, and the company’s music side has evolved quite a bit, with Google Play, home to more than 13 million downloadable tracks, as well as your cloud music locker, really getting going over the last couple of years.

This news should rightfully concern the folks over at Pandora and Spotify, but as a regular ol’ music fan, I have to say, I’m looking forward to seeing what develops.

Baltimore native Otis “Damon” Harris, a one-time member of the legendary Motown act The Temptations, died on Monday after losing a 14-year-long battle to prostate cancer, according to family spokesman Chuck Woodson. Harris was 62.

Harris, a resident of Owings Mills, died at the Joseph Richey Hospice in Seton Hill. Woodson said he was in remission until three years ago. The cancer had “gotten pretty bad” by the end of last summer, Woodson said, leaving Harris in the hospital from November until last week, when he was transferred to the hospice.

Benoit, who was also an author and poet, toured in Cold Cave’s live band surrounding their debut LP, 2009’s Love Comes Close. He also played on the split tape with Prurient, Stars Explode, released via Hospital Productions.

Did you arrive late to the Amon Tobin party, only to realize your new favorite artist’s seminal records are out of print on vinyl? FACT is reporting that Beat Delete, a new project backed by Ninja Tune Records, is looking to help you out of your very specific conundrum. Following the now-ubiquitous Kickstarter model, Ninja Tune is putting up select out-of-print records for the crowdsourcing treatment. If enough people pre-order the yet-to-be-reissued slab of vinyl in question, the label will repress the piece with the security of knowing the discs will already have new homes to call their own.

While the majority of albums available for pre-purchase are from the Ninja Tune catalog, like-minded labels such as Domino, Beggars Archive, and Big Dada have joined the fun with a handful of releases, allowing the small but dedicated fan bases for individual artists and records to dictate the reissue process instead of relying on the often unreliable whims of the unwashed masses. This process could also help shine some light on a label’s back catalog, which might contain some gems of which newer fans are unaware.

In a world where it’s increasingly difficult to predict what’s going to sell, let alone keep an ‘independent’ operation afloat financially, it’s definitely worth trying any model that might ensure income and increase overall awareness (with very little input or risk on the part of the participants). Look for more labels to join this bandwagon soon, or for the public to adopt the model all on their own, demanding via pre-order that records be reissues for their consumption. Power to the people!